June 9, 2015 at
3:28 PM

With their sixth-round pick, the 171st-overall pick in the 2015 MLB First-Year Player Draft, the Red Sox have selected Travis Lakins, a right-handed pitcher from Ohio State University.

Lakins is the first pitcher selected by the Red Sox in this draft, and the 6-foot-1 right-hander can run his fastball up to 96 according to Baseball America. Like Andrew Benintendi, Lakins is a draft-eligible sophomore, so he is likely to sign for around the slot value of $287,500 associated with this pick, with a chance that he can receive a slightly overslot deal. In the pre-draft rankings, he came in at 229th for Baseball America and 152nd for Perfect Game.
While Lakins has touched 96, he sits more in the 88-92 range according to MLB.com, while also throwing a curveball, slider, and changeup. The slider was his go-to pitch as a freshman, but he has not been able to throw it consistently this year, instead favoring his curveball, which scouts are not sold on. Another similarity to Benintendi is his basketball background, and that athleticism allows him to consistently repeat his delivery.

Pitching out of the bullpen during his freshman season, Lakins struck out 55 batters in 55 innings, while pitching to a 2.45 ERA. This season, all 15 of his appearances have come as a starter, and he struck out 84 batters over 96 innings while spotting an ERA of 3.75. While he will probably enter the system as a starter, scouts believe his future will be in relief, where he can get more velocity out of his fastball and develop one of his two breaking pitches to be a consistent weapon.

Scouting info was compiled from industry publications including Baseball America, FanGraphs, Perfect Game USA, and MLB.com.